The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat is holding a three-day technical mission in Nairobi to help Kenya align its national investment framework with the bloc’s Protocol on Investment, as African governments seek to improve investor confidence and accelerate cross-border capital flows.
The Stakeholder Engagement, Validation and Capacity Building Mission runs from Feb. 18 to Feb. 20 and forms part of the Protocol on Investment Implementation Support Programme, according to the AfCFTA Secretariat.
The programme is designed to support Kenya in strengthening transparency and predictability in its investment environment, while ensuring national laws and institutions are consistent with AfCFTA’s emerging investment rules.
The mission includes consultations with public and private sector stakeholders to identify regulatory bottlenecks and practical reform opportunities, alongside validation of diagnostic findings that compare Kenya’s investment laws and institutional arrangements against the protocol’s framework.
The AfCFTA Secretariat is also conducting capacity-building sessions for Kenya’s National Focal Points, focusing on investment facilitation, inter-agency coordination and grievance management, a growing priority as governments face rising investor disputes across the continent.
Working sessions during the mission will cover the four pillars of the Protocol on Investment: promotion, facilitation, protection and sustainable development. Partners supporting the process include the Overseas Development Institute, the secretariat said.
The engagement is expected to produce a post-mission roadmap outlining priority reforms aimed at strengthening Kenya’s investment ecosystem, supporting industrialisation and advancing regional integration.
AfCFTA has increasingly shifted toward implementation support for member states, as it seeks to translate continent-wide trade and investment commitments into operational reforms that can unlock tangible private-sector investment.
